Founded 2014 · Brighton, England
Founded in a Brighton garden flat. Now sending cards to 64 countries.
A former Hallmark art director, one roll of cotton card stock, and a stubborn belief that the greeting card aisle deserved better. Ten years on, we are still that small studio — only now with a print room, a team of 27, and a rather crowded trophy shelf.
— Anna Wexler, Founder
A note from Anna
“I just wanted to send a card I wasn't embarrassed to sign.”
After fifteen years art-directing cards for other people, I had a drawer full of beautiful, clever, deeply forgettable stationery — and a quiet suspicion that the people I loved deserved something made by a human, slowly, on a press that could be cleaned out by lunch.
So in the spring of 2014, between the rhubarb and the recycling bin, I wrote to twenty illustrators I admired. Every single one wrote back. We printed our first run of 200 cards on a borrowed Heidelberg, hand-folded them on the kitchen table, and posted them in brown envelopes with a stamp that cost more than the card.
Today we commission from more than 220 independent illustrators across the UK and Europe. We still print on FSC-certified 350gsm cotton card. We still refuse to put anything in plastic. And we still believe a card is a small, folded piece of someone paying attention.
If you have ever stood in a card shop holding two near-identical designs and felt a small grief — this studio is for you.
— Anna W., Founder & Creative Director
The first decade
A decade, drawn one illustration at a time.
Four chapters from a Brighton garden flat to a 12,000 sq ft studio in Hove — and a thousand small decisions in between.
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01
2014
A garden flat, a Heidelberg, 200 cards.
Anna Wexler leaves her art direction role at Hallmark, writes to twenty illustrators, and prints the first run on a borrowed press in a Brighton back garden. The website goes live on a Tuesday; the first wholesale order arrives on the Thursday.
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02
2018
Our first Henries Award.
Four years in, we are named Best Newcomer at the UK's greeting card industry awards — the Henries. The team grows to seven, the studio moves to a converted bakery on Portland Road, and we begin our first wholesale partnerships with independent gift shops.
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03
2022
Hove. A 12,000 sq ft studio. Best Independent Retailer.
We move into the Old Print Works in Hove, a former newspaper press with room for an in-house studio, a print room, and 220+ illustrator sample folders. The team is now 27. The Henries name us Best Independent Retailer.
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04
2024
Best Greeting Card Retailer. 2.1 million cards later.
We take the top Henries gong — Best Greeting Card Retailer — and pass two million cards sold since launch. Bespoke Studio delivers custom ranges for Fortnum & Mason and the V&A Museum Shop. We plant our first tree with Eden Reforestation Projects.
Recognition
Three Henries. Five press features. One very full trophy shelf.
Best Independent Retailer
Best Sustainability Initiative
Best Greeting Card Retailer
The Telegraph · Stylist · Grazia · Monocle · BBC Radio 4
By the numbers
Ten years of small, deliberate things, added up.
Over 140 independent shops across the UK, Europe and Japan stock the range. Every order plants one tree with Eden Reforestation Projects. Free UK mainland delivery on every order, no minimum spend.
Stockists & bespoke clients
In 140+ shops, museums and garden centres across three continents.
A small selection of the independent stockists and cultural institutions that have carried our cards — or commissioned a bespoke range from our in-house studio.
- Fortnum & Mason Bespoke Studio · 2023
- V&A Museum Shop Bespoke Studio · 2024
- Liberty London Bespoke Studio · 2022
- Royal Horticultural Society Bespoke Studio · 2024
Studio visits. We open the Hove studio to the public twice a year during Brighton Open Houses. The next dates are posted in the journal a fortnight before. Tea, biscuits, and a tour of the print room included.